Obama defends foreign policy

Obama defends foreign policy

MANILA, Philippines

President Barack Obama vigorously defended his foreign policy record Monday, arguing that his cautious approach to global problems has avoided the type of missteps that contributed to a “disastrous” decade of war for the United States.

Obama’s expansive comments came at the end of a weeklong Asia trip that exposed growing White House frustration with critics who cast the president as weak and ineffectual on the world stage. The president and his advisers get particularly irked by those who seize on Obama’s decision to pull back from a military strike in Syria and link it with virtually every other foreign policy challenge, from Russia’s threatening moves in Ukraine to China’s increasing assertiveness in Asia’s territorial disputes.

Syria’s Assad to seek re-election

DAMASCUS, Syria

Syrian President Bashar Assad declared his candidacy Monday for a new seven-year term in June presidential elections, more than three years into a revolt against his rule that has killed more than 150,000 people, uprooted an additional 9 million and touched off a humanitarian crisis.

Though Assad long had suggested he would seek re-election, the official announcement put to rest any illusions that the man who has led Syria since 2000 has any intention of relinquishing power or finding a political solution to the conflict. Rather, he appears emboldened by a series of military victories in recent months that have strengthened his once tenuous grip on power.

Ohio to increase lethal-injection dose

COLUMBUS

Ohio said Monday it’s boosting the dosages of its lethal-injection drugs even as it stands by the January execution of an inmate who made snorting and gasping sounds that led to a civil- rights lawsuit by his family and calls for a moratorium.

The state’s new policy considerably increases the amount of the sedative used in its two-drug combination and raises the amount of the painkiller, which are injected simultaneously, according to a court filing. The state said it was making the changes “to allay any remaining concerns” after the last execution.

The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said its review of the Jan. 16 execution of Dennis McGuire determined he was asleep and unconscious a few minutes after the drugs were administered and his execution was conducted in a constitutional manner.

Active search ends for bodies in Wash.

EVERETT, Wash.

For more than five weeks, crews painstakingly sifted through mud and debris, at first searching for survivors and then for the remains of those buried by the mudslide in Washington state. On Monday, officials called off the active search, though two bodies remain entombed in the tangled pile.

At times, people dug with their bare hands, recovering 41 victims, but Steve Hadaway and Kris Regelbrugge have not been found after a hillside collapsed March 22 and swept across the small community in Oso, about an hour northeast of Seattle.

Task force aims to aid rape victims

WASHINGTON

The Obama administration is taking steps designed to help colleges and universities reduce sexual assaults on their campuses and provide better protections for the victims when they do occur.

Schools should identify trained, confidential victim’s advocates and conduct surveys to better gauge the frequency of sexual assault on their campuses since these types of crimes are underreported, a White House task force on sexual assault recommends in a report to be released today.

Associated Press